The Future of Walt Disney World

We’re always keen to underline the ever-changing, ever-exciting attraction profile that Orlando has, but it’s fair to say the latest news from Disney really ups the ante in terms of making the future brighter than ever.

As we already know, the next biggest thing to hit Orlando will be the opening next year of Universal Orlando’s Epic Universe theme park, complete with more Harry Potter, a land devoted to Universal’s monsters and a full Nintendo World section.

And, at the time of launching their shiny new project, Universal positively threw down the gauntlet to their theme park neighbors, insisting “A Universe is bigger than a World.”

Now, that might just have been a bit of enthusiastic bluster from Universal’s head honchos, but there was a feeling of challenge in the air between the two, the new kids on the block challenging the old guard.

In truth, the ‘old guard’ have kept things to themselves for much of the time since the 2019 announcement of Epic Universe, but things have changed in recent months and weeks, and now we are starting to see the House of Mouse stretch its muscles again, responding to the “challenge.”

What we know is coming

To be fair, Disney has not exactly been without new attractions to make a song and dance about. Last year, we saw the debut of the fab new TRON Lightcycle/Run coaster at the Magic Kingdom, while EPCOT unveiled the imaginative Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana, and its fab new night-time show, Luminous The Story of Us.

EPCOT has also announced that the final part of its big transformation, CommuniCore Hall and CommuniCore Plaza – including the all-new Mickey & Friends character meet-and-greet – will be on June 10, accompanied by a new stage show ‘Celebracion Encanto’, featuring the songs and story of the film Encanto.

This will be followed by another reworking of the Test Track ride, which will close on June 17 to begin the process of updating it with sponsor Chevrolet. There are currently no real details about what we will see when the ride re-opens, but many Disney observers believe it will feature an electric car design and a nod to the old World of Motion attraction, which it replaced in 1999.

Then, later this year, we can expect to see the results of the big makeover of the former Splash Mountain ride at the Magic Kingdom, which is becoming Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, a completely reimagined version of the log flume ride that will feature all the characters of the film The Princess & The Frog.

What’s next for Disney

While all of the above isn’t exactly chicken feed, there are definitely more substantial projects in future for Walt’s World. Much more.

There have been numerous little hints and suggestions from Disney in the past 18 months, but they are all starting to come together following a big feature in the local Orlando Sentinel newspaper last weekend that talked about a $60billion investment in the company’s theme parks worldwide.

This massive figure has been bandied around for the last couple of years, but has been solidified recently by a statement from Disney CEO Bob Iger that $17billion of that huge amount is destined for the Orlando parks.

And, earlier this month, Iger opened the door on another major clue as to what might be in store when he revealed that the company is ready to give the green light to Project Avatar, a hugely ambitious expansion plan for Disneyland in California, featuring a dramatic version of the Pandora land in Orlando’s Animal Kingdom.

Blue Sky thinking

Just how does a new ‘land’ for the Anaheim resort add up to something new for Orlando? Easy. Recent history says that when Disney add a major expansion to one park, they need to keep the other one fresh, too.

We’ve already seen how the Imagineers have updated film-based attractions like Soarin’ in EPCOT and Star Tours in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and it would be a relatively simple job to do that with the Animal Kingdom’s Flight of Passage attraction.

So it’s not too much of a stretch to see an Avatar land in California giving rise to an update of Orlando’s version, as well as two other major proposals for Walt Disney World (which continues to be more than four times the size of the original resort).

The first one involves the ‘Beyond Big Thunder’ project that Disney has referenced several times in the past two years without providing any real details of what it involves (the process of ‘Blue Sky thinking’ that is a company hallmark).

The second is a plan to completely redevelop the DinoLand USA area of the Animal Kingdom, turning the Chester and Hester’s Dinorama section into a possible themed land for Encanto and transforming the current Dinosaur ride into an Indiana Jones attraction (like in Disneyland California).

What will we see, and when

The key questions here, of course, are what kind of rides and attractions are we likely to see, and when will all this happen. As yet, Disney is keeping things very close to its corporate chest, but there are already some imaginative guesses being bandied around.

According to Iger, fully 70 per cent of the big $60billion investment will be focused on new attractions that expand the capacity of Disney’s theme parks and cruise ships. The remaining 30 per cent will go towards technology and maintenance to make those expansions happen.

‘Beyond Big Thunder’ is being positioned to be the centrepiece of Walt Disney World’s next expansion, with an additional 14 acres of the Magic Kingdom being created behind the current Big Thunder Mountain ride in Frontierland, where we can expect to see a whole new ‘land’ take shape.

Iger has hinted at ideas for both the Frozen film franchise and the big 2017 hit, Coco, as well as possible elements of Encanto. Frozen would make the most sense, as it would be next to Fantasyland – or constitute a possible Fantasyland expansion – especially as it could borrow from the World of Frozen at Hong Kong Disneyland, which opened last year.

As for a timeline, it wouldn’t be surprising if Disney made some serious announcement later this year or early in 2025 (nothing like trying to steal some of Universal’s Epic Universe thunder, hey?!).

But whenever it happens, we expect it to be big and dramatic, and proof positive of Orlando’s continued appeal to always have the latest and greatest to offer its future visitors.

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